Just a quick note here to let you know that Butler Motorcycle Maps has just added Southern California to the list of motorcycle-touring maps it offers. Already available are Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, and Montana. They will also soon have a Rocky Mountain states map combining all five of those mountain states in one map. These things are sizable already so I’m wondering if that one is going to be huge.

I’ve written previously about these maps so I’ll just recap here. In addition to being tough and waterproof, these maps have all the best motorcycle roads in each state highlighted and detailed. I know they’ve done a good job of this because I have ridden extensively in the Rocky Mountain states and there isn’t a road I would add that they don’t already have. And they have a few I’m not familiar with. I’d say that’s a pretty strong recommendation.

As for this new one, Southern California, this is where it really gets interesting for me. I don’t know California very well, and I especially don’t know SoCal. I look at this map and I think, “Oh man. Look at that. And that. And that. I want to go there.” But you know, without something like this map, if I did go there I wouldn’t have any idea where to go. Clearly the main strength in these maps is cluing in people who are unfamiliar with an area as to what the area offers.

For instance, I was riding in SoCal just a couple weeks ago, and while I was on a tour where I couldn’t just split off and go somewhere else, I see from this map that we were very close to some really nice roads. Not that the roads we were on weren’t nice, mind you. We did, after all, ride Big Sur, and go to Yosemite, and ride across the Golden Gate Bridge. But I had no notion that there were some other very good motorcycle roads that we just went right past. Next time I have a chance to get out that way I’m definitely taking this map.

I will make note here, for purposes of full disclosure, that I have an ongoing relationship with the folks at Butler. They have paid for one small ad on 1 page on my 100+ page website, and they do give me these maps for free, with the hope that I’ll write about them. Rest assured, though, that if I thought these things were crap I’d say so. But you won’t hear that from me because it’s not true.

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Biker Quote for Today

Don’t die wondering, die wandering.

You need to understand that I’m very hard on maps. As far as I’m concerned, they’re disposable, and ripping is just part of the gig.

Enter Butler Motorcycle Maps. These guys are riders who decided to make motorcycle-specific maps, by motorcyclists, for motorcyclists. So far they have released maps for Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho.

There are two things that make these maps attractive to motorcyclists. First, they highlight the best roads in each state based on what they know we like, i.e., scenery, twisty roads, two-lane, and all that. Second, they’re durable. They’re not printed on paper. It’s probably some kind of plastic, but whatever it is, they are waterproof and tear-resistant. Good things to have out on a bike.

Of course this is where my style of usage comes into play. I have a tank bag that has a map display on top. The problem with the map display is that it is not sized to fit any map conveniently. Conveniently, in my mind, would be something that allowed you to use the basic folds of the map and show two panels. The display on my bag is too short and too narrow, so I end up folding maps every which way to make them fit. (See the photo above.) The consequence of that is that they tend to rip along the folds and fall to pieces quickly.

I was in Sturgis last week, and on Thursday I left and went to Yellowstone. The Butler guys had a booth in Sturgis that I just happened to stumble upon. I was already familiar with them because they had comped me a couple maps and had taken out an ad on the Passes and Canyons website. I stopped in to say hi and they gave me the two latest maps, Wyoming and Idaho.

I then proceeded to use the Wyoming map as I made my way to Yellowstone and then home to Denver. It didn’t fit any better than any other map in my display so I manhandled it the way I do all maps.

The result? When I got home I opened it out, smoothed it off, and refolded it along the original folds and it’s good to go. Now, it looks a bit rough. You’d never mistake it for new. It has wrinkles and creases, and it didn’t want to fold back perfectly and probably won’t ever again. But it’s absolutely usable, it’s not torn, and I suspect it will hold up to that same treatment many more times.

What’s more, it is also good in its other function of highlighting the best routes. I’ve ridden all over Wyoming, so there are almost no roads highlighted on the map that I’m not familiar with. There is one, a bit of two-lane between Laramie and Cheyenne. So I know the roads they’ve marked and I agree with them. These are the best roads in Wyoming.

If this sounds like the sort of thing you’d be interested in, you can buy these maps for $14.95 either through their website or from selected dealers. Tell them Ken sent you.

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Biker Quote for Today

A bend in the road is not the end of the road . . . unless you fail to make the turn.